Crushing The Party

December 15, 1987|The Morning Call

To the Editor:

Your Dec. 4 editorial "Blipping reality, Soviet-style" aptly touched on the Evil Empire's plan to celebrate the "millennium of Christianity in Russia" next year. I don't know what the "Ivans and the Tanyas" made of Mr. Gorbachev's reference to it, but I know that many Ihors and Olhas (Ukrainians) are concerned.

Lithuanians just celebrated 600 years of Christianity, and the Ukrainians now will celebrate 1,000 years, preferably without help from Moscow. Though government-ballyhooed festivities will take place in Moscow, Ukrainians resent the efforts of the Russian-dominated U.S.S.R. to steal away a millennium born in what is now the Ukraine. To keep historical perspective is one reason why Pope John Paul II will be chief celebrant at two Ukrainian masses in Rome next year. Notwithstanding, the outlawed Ukrainian Catholic Church and the subjugated Ukrainian Orthodox Church also would like their stories told in the world media.

In the year 988, Prince Wolodymyr (Vladimir) of Kiev christened his people of Kievan Rus at the River Dneiper. These people were the ancestors of the Ukrainians. Then from Kiev, the story goes, missionaries offered Christianity to the people of the north, where Russia would later be born. (Not until 1709 did Peter the Great rename Muscovy as Russia.) Christianity took hold in the unborn Muscovy to the north around the year 1100.

Clear distinctions between Russians and Ukrainians, and between their religious lives and traditions, figure into a long history behind the Millennium. But I, too, wonder how next year a Communist apparat will crash the party. The souls of 5,000 Ukrainian priests and laymen murdered since the birth of Communism will be in attendance.